Lamentations 5

¹ Remember, O Jehovah, what hath befallen us, Look attentively, and see our reproach.

² Our inheritance hath been turned to strangers, Our houses to foreigners.

³ Orphans we have been — without a father, our mothers [are] as widows.

⁴ Our water for money we have drunk, Our wood for a price doth come.

⁵ For our neck we have been pursued, We have laboured — there hath been no rest for us.

⁶ [To] Egypt we have given a hand, [To] Asshur, to be satisfied with bread.

⁷ Our fathers have sinned — they are not, We their iniquities have borne.

⁸ Servants have ruled over us, A deliverer there is none from their hand.

⁹ With our lives we bring in our bread, Because of the sword of the wilderness.

¹⁰ Our skin as an oven hath been burning, Because of the raging of the famine.

¹¹ Wives in Zion they have humbled, Virgins — in cities of Judah.

¹² Princes by their hand have been hanged, The faces of elders have not been honoured.

¹³ Young men to grind they have taken, And youths with wood have stumbled.

¹⁴ The aged from the gate have ceased, Young men from their song.

¹⁵ Ceased hath the joy of our heart, Turned to mourning hath been our dancing.

¹⁶ Fallen hath the crown [from] our head, Woe [is] now to us, for we have sinned.

¹⁷ For this hath our heart been sick, For these have our eyes been dim.

¹⁸ For the mount of Zion — that is desolate, Foxes have gone up on it.

¹⁹ Thou, O Jehovah, to the age remainest, Thy throne to generation and generation.

²⁰ Why for ever dost Thou forget us? Thou forsakest us for length of days!

²¹ Turn us back, O Jehovah, unto Thee, And we turn back, renew our days as of old.

²² For hast Thou utterly rejected us? Thou hast been wroth against us — exceedingly?